IBN AL-ʿARABĪ (1165–1240 CE), known throughout the Islamic world simply as the "greatest master" (al-Shaykh al-akbar), is acknowledged to be one of the most important spiritual teachers within the mystical tradition of Islam. A vastly prolific writer and visionary, he is generally known as the prime exponent of the concept of the Unity of Being (wahdat al-wujūd), even though that particular term, by which his teachings came later to be designated, was hardly used in his own milieu. His emphasis, as with any mystic, lay rather on the true potential of the human being and the path to realizing that potential, which reaches its completion in the Perfect or Complete Man (al-insān al-kāmil). Ibn al-ʿArabī wrote at least 300 works, ranging from minor treatises to the huge thirty-seven-volume Meccan Illuminations (al-Futūhāt...